Further discussions and with the help of a reflecting pool the Heroes of Aegis were able to determine that the "she lives" taunts that came to the druid's mind while in Overbey's temple were clearly talking about Miran's mother, Tal'laheen. They were also able to determine that she was being held at the old burial mound (the direction where they saw the ogre and his party headed)..also! more prisoners and not just the masons that were captured earlier.
Elrohir pulls Miran to the side, "you know we may discover some things you may not want to see."
The sheriff steadied her chin. She will NOT look weak in front of the Ranger Knight, "Elrohir I am aware of this and I need to do this. If my mother is alive or dead I will do what I can to make sure she gets back home so she can rest!"
Elrohir smiles gently at Miran, "I know. But I need your focus to be complete and on the mission. There will be alot of other potential prisoners, let alone this group who will be relying on you."
Miran found herself smiling, "Elrohir, I'm good. You have my focus. Thank you for being here for me."
Elrohir then slaps the sheriff on the shoudler, "Here for you! I was coming down to Aegis for the fresh air and scenery. Who knew?"
So off they go..
The party led by Miran and consisting of Randthalas, Wolfie, Sitting Duck, Brommer the dwarf, Althea the Starburst priestess, Elrohir, and Wallace with his team of archers marched out towards the burial mound.
The party was able to surprise and kill without much effort a small set of gnoll guards who were standing watch. As much as the team tried to do it quietly, Brommer the dwarf was being loud and obnoxious. Elrohir knows that dwarves tend to be that way, but something was different this time.
"What in the hell are you doing dwarf!!" Elrohir hissed loudly at Brommer!
"Oy, I see some more gnolls up here."
He was right as a group of 5 gnolls stormed out of the burial mound. Again the party laid waste to the humanoids without much effort.
All of sudden blackness fell on the sheriff, and before anyone could react Sitting Duck took off running with a savage growl and the look of fury in his eyes.
"Drow!" Elrohir yells and thinks to himself, "I'm really tired of having to yell that!" And then with no real reason the globe of darkness dissipated around Miran and she was clear.
Three more gnolls came running out of the burial mound. Tley looked around worried, turned, and ran back into the hole.
The party went in and fled down the stairs. Wallace, his archers and the dwarf stayed above ground to keep watch.
The gnolls continued down another passageway, but there was no thought to pursue them with lives in danger. There were about 8 different rooms with prisoners in them. And in the middle of the room a giant hole. The party immediately spreads out and investigates.
Miran lets out a loud gasp. "Randthalas!"
The druid runs over to the sheriff to find her crouched down next to what is left of her mother. "She lives!" the druid notes, but she is damaged badly. The elf has had both of her eyes gauged out, both knees shattered, a punctured lung and essentially every other bone broke in her body.
Without emotion the druid tells Miran, "If we move her. She will die. Let me try something." The druid begins to wave his hands around and gently lays them on the elf.
In the meantime, Elrohir and the party determine that most of the other prisoners are in decent condition (besides being completely naked). So Elrohir and Althea set about rigging up a sled to evacuate the badly wounded casualties that could not move.
Miran's mom begins to mutter something. Miran puts her ear up to her mom's mouth. "What mother? What are you trying to say?"
Rand's face went pale. He heard what she had said. Miran looked up the druid, asking him pleadingly with her eyes.
"She said......run"
Althea snarled, "it's a trap."
THUD
"ELROHIR...OGRES!!"
"ARCHERS ON LINE"
"NOTCH....LOOSE"
Rand grabs his head. The spirits were talking to him again. "There is time for one to escape. Keep him safe"
The druid knew Elrohir the Ranger Knight was their only hope. "Elrohir, I will take care of the situation in here. You need to confront the monster!"
Ranthalas then begins to cast again and lays his hands on the ranger's face. All of a sudden Elrohir's skin began to harden and take the look of treebark.
"Woah, is this going to give me a rash!"
Rand couldn't help but chuckle quickly and shake his head, "Go fool!"
Elrohir dashes up the hole.
Miran stands up and walks over to the big crevice on the ground, "What is that sound?"
Althea says, "Sheriff, the gnolls are springing another trap and from the signs of it they are about to release something I don't think we want to be a part of."
Then they heard it, the sound of rushing water.
MEANWHILE....
Elrohir quickly climbs up and emerges out of the hole; before he has a second to think about it he sees a boulder headed for him. He dives out of the way but the boulder conveniently lands right where he exited effectively blocking the only known hole for escape.
And then there he was, with a plume of bright orange hair - the monster, the ranger killer, the ranger's bane - Robisar staring him down grinning knowing he has found his quarry. Elrohir has fought ogres before, but the ranger was convinced this ogre's parents were a mix of ogre and giant.
The ogre points a big meaty hand at the ranger and mutters something in his savage language.
Elrohir darts his eyes around, "well enough of the pleasantries. He gets to his feet, draws his sword and picks up Wallace's large kite shield.
'LOOSE' Wallace screams
Another volley of arrows stings Robisar who now picks up his favorite club, a tree set with jagged black obsidian teeth and charges the ranger
Elrohir hears the heavy stomping behind him but has no time to look. Robisar's son rises up over the hill.
Luckily for the ranger, Wallace changes his archers focus to that foe and has his archers reign hell on the ogre behind Elrohir.
Robisar charged and feinted high. Elrohir ducks under the feint and thrusts his sword under the ogre's wing and plunges his sword deep in to the creature's stomach.
The ogre wails and brings the club down with all his might to crush the ranger. Elrohir escapes the worst of the blow, the shield buckles and cracks under the strike and the metal sheathing snaps loose slicing Elrohir's ear nearly off.
Elrohir falls backward blinking the blood out of his eye and he barely holds onto his sword. Prone on the ground he dives under the ogre, the shield disintegrates as the ranger rolls to his feet spins and slices the ogre across his back cutting him deeply. The ogre wails again and swings mightily with a backswing. The ogre clips Elrohir on his sore left side tearing his armor and some of his muscle from him, splattering the ground with blood.
This move while effective causes Robisar to lose his balance. The ogre desperately throws his club at Elrohir as he falls away. Elrohir ducks the club, spits out some blood and charges at the ogre.
Robisar raises his massive hands and brings them down on the ranger's back shattering his ribs. Elrohir falls flat to the ground spitting up blood.
The force of the blow actually sent the ranger skidding through the ogre's legs which may have been what saved the ranger's life that day. Ignoring the pain and fighting off the impending darkness; Elrohir ducked under another backswing from the ogre, stepped to the side, and thrust his sword up into the ogre's chest.
Elrohir dove back and began to pull his hand axes out of his belt.
Elrohir locked eyes with the ogre. The ogre dropped to his knees and yanked the ranger's sword out of his chest; tossing it to the side.
The ranger stared at the ogre. "yes, let me be the last thing you see."
"ELROHIR! DOWN!" The ranger dove to the ground out of instinct.
The sound of arrows whizzing through the air and plunking into ogre flesh was never more of a beauftiful sound to the ranger. For Wallace and his archers had just delivered the killing blow to the son of Robisar. The ogre who was about swing down and deliver the killing blow to Elrohir from behind.
Elrohir drops to the ground, clutching his chest. Wallace immediately tends to the ranger securing Elrohir's wounds so he can breathe better.
"Never have I seen such heroism Ranger Knight."
"yeah you are pretty sexy yourself Wallace."
"umm uhh " Wallace stuttered.
"So I am assuming those boots sticking out from under that boulder belong to Brommer?"
"Yes. He never saw it coming."
Meanwhile...
Below, the rest of the team slowly moves the wounded prisoners into the tunnel of the tomb to hopefully buy themselves some time.
The water was rising rapidly and lapping around the hero's ankles. A sled made out of table parts and a shield was constructed hastily for Tal'laheen.
Suddenly, Rand looks up into the hole an sees the recenly placed boulder start to move and the muttered yells of "Push! Push"
"I'm trying to Wallace. Fuck all if I can't feel my ribs or my arms right now!"
Slowly the boulder moves to the side and Wallace and Elrohir are able to help evacuate the prisoners and the heroes.
Within minutes water was rushing up the tunnel and spewing out of the entrance.
"Elrohir."
"What?"
"You look like hell."
"yeah thanks druid. Next time, I'm sending you up the hole."
Sitting Duck Pursues
Duck took a deep breath to be sure he had the scent right.
It was that vinegary smell of drow mithril melting in the sunlight. he thought for only a moment before rasping his last civil words to his friends "Don't wait for me". He ran as a starving beast to an unguarded feast.
He ran not through the mountains and hills, the low scrub around him but through the mist of memories of the last time he tasted that scent more than a century ago when he was but a child. His sister lay still, dead with a drow sword stuck deep in her naked chest. He hid while she died and he remembered watching the wounded drow limp away. He ran through the memory of that day and remembered the men of his tribe pushing the goat fucking drow back to the dark with such fury even the sun rose early to join the battle. They were never seen in force on the surface again.
Duck stopped, he felt the wind change as the sun crested a distant hilltop. He got low and stiff against the ground. HE was in a state and had not noticed he had broke a sweat, his scent would now give him away. Would the enemy notice in his hurry to escape?
He crept along looking for another sign, there a thread from the unraveling drow cloak. The elf was running on the surface, Duck had cut off his retreat with his own pursuit he only had to drive him a little longer then he would only need to face a single naked foe. He was salivating, so much did he want to taste his enemies blood, he wiped the corner of his mouth and slowly rose to walk, then a slow jog anticipating where the drow went by reading the terrain
"if i was a goat fucking drow what path would i take?" he thought...
There he was aiming a tiny crossbow in Duck's direction
The bolt struck him in the throat, it missed anything important but it hurt good. Good that he could feel it as he fell and slid to a stop. Good that there was pain, it meant there was still time whatever venom he was using it wasn't going to kill him, it was burning like the paralyzing venom of the quasi-dragons he had once been bitten by in the underdark. "Yes! I have time".
Duck picked himself up as another tiny dart from that hand crossbow struck him in the shoulder, he knocked it away with his sword and charged raising it above his head with both hands on the handle. He leapt onto his foe who was naked in the sun, only his crossbow still surviving in the cleansing light. His sword struck home, he smashed in through his skull and out that back of his shoulder, up to the guard. It was luck, the double edged kind he had made his legend on. Good and bad at the same time. Bleary eyed he fell onto his foe laughing as the ogres and gnolls came howling to take him away.
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